Nicole Ferraro

According to publicly available information on state and local ballot initiatives up for a vote in 2022 elections, broadband is on the ballot statewide for voters in Alabama and New Mexico, as well as for some voters in Colorado. Voters in Alabama will weigh in on the "Broadband Internet Infrastructure Funding Amendment," which, if approved, will amend the state's constitution "to allow local governments to use funding provided for broadband internet infrastructure under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and award such funds to public or private entities." Voters in New Mexico have a simi

Small broadband providers in the rural US are scrambling to meet a September 1 deadline to submit coverage data to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) or risk being locked out of the $42.45 billion Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment program (BEAD). FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel opened the agency's broadband data collection portal on June 30. The data requested will inform the first draft of a new federal broadband coverage map, which states will then have the opportunity to challenge with their own data.

Rural residents in upstate New York will soon benefit from a municipal open access fiber network, courtesy of the state's new $1 billion ConnectAll grant program and many years of advanced planning by local county officials. Back in May 2022, New York Gov Kathy Hochul (D-NY)'s office announced a $10 million pilot project as the first to be funded through ConnectAll. The initial pilot would target fiber builds in the village of Sherburne in Chenango County, the town of Nichols in Tioga County, the town of Diana in Lewis County and the town of Pitcairn in St. Lawrence County (NY).

While the National Telecommunications and Information Administration's notice of funding opportunity prioritizes fiber builds for those applying for Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program grants, a "high-cost threshold" exception has been a point of concern for fiber advocates like the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA) CEO Gary Bolton. That threshold is a cost, to be set by the states, at which they may choose not to prioritize end-to-end fiber deployment. FBA is trying to make sure the states and territories writing up their funding plans keep that threshold as high as pos

LTD Broadband, the top bidder in the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) that can't seem to hold on to its funding, may see its dollars revoked in yet another state. This time the company is being challenged in Minnesota, where the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in that state has ordered an investigation to determine if the company can deliver on the $311 million it was designated by the Federal Communications Commission to build out in the state's rural areas.

Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel shared an update on July 1 announcing the FCC had opened its new system to collect information on where 2,500 broadband providers deliver service. Providers have until September 1 to submit data. The new federal broadband data is supposed to make up for the Form 477 flaw, or the fact that the FCC has historically relied on coverage data per census block, as submitted by internet service providers.

The flood of funding coming down from the federal government to address the digital divide is spurring a range of broadband administrative hires in federal and state offices. At the federal level, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told a Senate committee in February 2022 that the department expected to make at least 100 new hires for broadband alone and to have one staffer at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) assigned to each state.

With a 4-0 vote, the Federal Communications Commission adopted new rules banning revenue-sharing agreements for internet service providers (ISPs) and multi-tenant environments (MTEs), requiring disclosure of exclusive marketing arrangements and closing loopholes around indoor cable wiring regulations. The FCC has banned revenue-sharing agreements that it says inhibit competition.

However challenging it is to solve the digital divide across the US, it's even harder for Tribal communities. According to a 2021 report from the Federal Communications Commission, 79.1 percent of the population on Tribal lands can access broadband at the minimum speed of 25/3 Mbps. That compares to 82.7 percent of the rural US and 98.8 percent of urban areas.

The US federal government's $65 billion broadband program is the country's single-largest commitment to achieving universal Internet access nationwide, and a funding deluge that people across the industry never expect to see again. With that in mind, technology and policy stakeholders are eager to get it right. "We will never be in a position to have this much funding available to get fiber to every American," said Gary Bolton, president of the Fiber Broadband Association (FBA).